Yemeni Students Gain Essential Skills for the Future

High-schoolers' learning assessment results impressive

When helping to launch the Yemen Innovations in Technology-Assisted Learning for Educational Quality (INTALEQ) project, IDD’s Helen Boyle called the program’s newly adapted digital learning materials “the vehicle to get teachers interested and to get students interacting with the material, instead of passively listening.” Recent assessment results show that the vehicle is off to a fast start.

INTALEQ, a public-private partnership aimed at giving Yemeni students the opportunity to acquire 21st century skills, is having a positive effect on participating students and schools. The project aims to improve teaching and learning and does not explicitly focus on the use of technology, although teachers and students are learning about how to use both computers and the internet. In INTALEQ, these tools are a means to the end of animating the classroom and helping students to connect with knowledge and information.

Tenth grade students in six participating schools and three non-participating schools were tested in four different subject areas at the beginning and end of the semester: physics, biology, chemistry and math. INTALEQ students’ post-test scores showed remarkable gains in all of the subjects from the beginning to the end of the semester, ranging from 8.5 to 9.4 points improvement in every subject. In comparison, students in non-participating schools showed a maximum learning gain of 1.4 points. The differences were statistically significant.

“These results indicate that using hands-on digital materials adds real value to students’ learning of math and science and pushes them toward developing 21st century skills like problem solving, communication and teamwork,” said Boyle, Director of IDD’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Center. “Teachers have also embraced the new, more student-centered methods required to integrate technology effectively into their classrooms and have reported enjoying their teaching more.”

INTALEQ is scheduled to continue its support for 20 schools in four Yemeni cities through January of 2010, with a strong possibility of continuation beyond 2010.